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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Simple question which I hope someone will take the
time to answer.&nbsp;I am doing a little Perl script to do some studies of
thoroughbred horse racing (what an original idea!).&nbsp; One thing I need to
know is when a previous race was on the same track or on the same track
circuit.&nbsp; [For example, Santa Anita, Hollywood Park, and Del Mar are all
considered to be in the Southern California circuit.]</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT>&nbsp;</DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>So I have a hash defined and initialized as
follows:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT>&nbsp;</DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>my %trackCircuit = ( Hol=&gt;'SoCal',
Aqu=&gt;'NYRA' );</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT>&nbsp;</DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>just to give a short sample.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT>&nbsp;</DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>There is an array of items, @LR, which describes
the last race run by the horse.&nbsp; The track is in the first spot,
$LR[0].</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT>&nbsp;</DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>In the debugger, when I try to step through a line
which has a term like $trackCircuit{&nbsp; $LR[0] }, it complains about an
uninitialized value.&nbsp; I get the same squawk if I try to do it from the
debugger:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT>&nbsp;</DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>p $trackCircuit{ $LR[0] }</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT>&nbsp;</DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Yet, when I do</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT>&nbsp;</DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>p $LR[0]</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT>&nbsp;</DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>it gives me the correct string "Hol", and if I
try</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT>&nbsp;</DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>p $trackCircuit{ "Hol" }</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT>&nbsp;</DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>it gives the expected "SoCal".</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT>&nbsp;</DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I am at a loss to know what to try
next.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT>&nbsp;</DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Curtis Lacy</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><A
href="mailto:cel1@ix.netcom.com">cel1@ix.netcom.com</A></FONT></DIV>
<DIV>&nbsp;</DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT>&nbsp;</DIV>
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